What is the best way to learn pharm and keep up second year?

[nope80]

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Does anyone have any suggestions for 2nd year pharm? I really feel like I have been learning path and phys really well but pharm not so much. At our school we are left on our own to do a lot of it and I feel a bit lost in how I should prepare myself to know this stuff for step 1.

I bought a pack of pharm cards (lippincots). Is this a complete list of all the drugs we would need to know? In other words, can I assume that if I know these I am set for step 1? If not, is there a better way to approach this? Is there a book that is particularly good for this?

 

[DoctaJay]

I truly believe that the best pharm cards are the ones that YOU make. With this in mind i bought some a notecard software programs like iFlash (Mac), CueCard (PC), and iFlipr (iphone/ipod touch) and made my own cards. I would go through all the drugs in that day's lecture notes and open Katzung to find out the:

Class:
Mechanism of Action:
Drug of Choice/Indication:
Side Effect:

After making them I kind of already knew them. Having it on my iphone has really helped because now there really isn't a time when I can't study them.

Just my .02

 

[HarryRosenMD]

Hi...

Check out the following review books. They're both great - just with different approaches. Pick one to use along with Pharmcards.
When it comes time to study for the boards... you should already have gotten through a decent amount of the material. You will, however, need to use a more streamlined source in the weeks prior to STEP 1 (maybe just going through your Pharmcards). Hope that helps.

Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews: Pharmacology

Katzung & Trevor's Review of Pharmacology

 

[njbmd]

Does anyone have any suggestions for 2nd year pharm? I really feel like I have been learning path and phys really well but pharm not so much. At our school we are left on our own to do a lot of it and I feel a bit lost in how I should prepare myself to know this stuff for step 1.

I bought a pack of pharm cards (lippincots). Is this a complete list of all the drugs we would need to know? In other words, can I assume that if I know these I am set for step 1? If not, is there a better way to approach this? Is there a book that is particularly good for this?

Your Pharm cards are OK but I found them tedious and not generally that helpful. I used Pharm Recall by Ramachandarin. It has everything that you need and nothing you don't. The Power Review at the end is worth the price of the book.

Katzung and Lippincott were way too detailed to be of much use for me. My Pham syllabus + Pharm Recall was all I needed for Boards.

 

[harrisonIM]

My Pham syllabus + Pharm Recall was all I needed for Boards.

What do you mean by your pharm syllabus. I usually think of a syllabus as objectives and goals for the class. Nothing in terms of actual information.

 

[njbmd]

What do you mean by your pharm syllabus. I usually think of a syllabus as objectives and goals for the class. Nothing in terms of actual information.

Our syllabi were bound booklets that were crammed full of information. I still utilize them today for things. My medical school was a gem in terms of making sure that we had accurate up to date info. This is why the only course I generally attended second year was Path (to view the slides with the profs). My course syllabi are worth their weight in gold.

 

[nosaj1033]

online flashcards !!!!!!!! 😉 Take a couple of days and convert your syllabus into concise flashcards then do them over and over.

 

[TMP-SMX]

BRS. Enough said. Saved me for psych/pharm today because I majorly procrastinated these few weeks due to fiancée's new Wii and my new Macbook. I was able to go through the relevant chapters (most) of both BRS books in 2 days plus doing practice problems. Then I had to go through all of my lecture notes the day before the exam. Lets just say I didn't sleep much.

If you want to sleep and do better you have to keep up as the lectures come. I stream and got behind due to previous said reasons. By the end of the weekends I didn't do any studying and was still behind in lectures. Spend weekends going over your notes and making summary sheets and going over the drugs. (Though we have an excessive lecture load this unit with psych/pharm/pathbio. Then they are throwing in a clin med exam from last semester this week too.

What do you mean by your pharm syllabus. I usually think of a syllabus as objectives and goals for the class. Nothing in terms of actual information.

It's lectures notes provided by your school. For schools that do this it is what the test will be on. Sometimes just powerpoints printed off and other times well organized lecture outlines, summaries, and information.

 

[howelljolly]

What I wish I had done was make my own flash cards, from day one. By the time I thought of the idea, it didnt make a difference.

On one side... drug name, classification, and maybe some other drug names in that group.

Flip-side... all the important stuff.

 

[Chrysanthemum]

pharm recall is a solid soooolid book. after a big exam you usually have a few days of ease so use that time to really learn your pharm. supplement with a bigger text for things that aren't clear. by the end of the year you'll understand most of the pharm and all u'll have to do is refresh your memory for boards while everyone else is just trying to memorize it - which is pretty ineffective when you could be using that time to memorize the 10,000 other esoteric facts that show up on boards.
everyone who i know used the "memorize pharm just before boards" method did not do well on their boards